Because Thunderbird and the Ball of Twine opens with a UFO siting, on Sunday a friend sent me a link to a 2010 audio story on This American Life by an author who held an anniversary vigil at the site of the Travis Walton experience, interviewing one of the men who was present. I’m not very familiar with the Travis Walton case but, remembering it was in the Arizona back woods, I looked it up and realized we passed pretty close to the area on our drive from the Painted Desert to Cottonwood in 2008, because we took the back way, on the advice of a park ranger, and passed through Snowflake, where Walton lived, and Heber, not far from where he had his siting…

“She saw it first. She jumped and shot over to the window.”

The individual asked to remain anonymous so fake names are used. The first sighting involves two witnesses in Ooltewah, Tennessee in 1992. The second sighting was about three months later in the same location.

“Yes, I have.”

Interview with a nurse and mother of three children who saw a UFO in the Tampa Bay, Florida area as a youth. We did the interview surrounded by swirling, twirling children. Imagine sounds of rambunctious play (i.e. constant screaming, mostly joyful) in the background.

Idyllopus Press: I think we’re recording now. OK, I ask three questions. And the first question is, have you ever seen a UFO?

Blue Jean Skirt Woman: Yes, I have.

Idyllopus Press: You have seen a UFO? Tell me about it.

“there weren’t any plane sounds, no engine sounds to it at all, all we saw were flickering lights and they kind of zipped out of the sky.”

Blue Jean Skirt Woman: Well, when I was about ten years old I was with some friends and we were walking down the street and I looked up in the sky and there was…these lights that were like flickering and none of us could determine what it was and it lasted probably for about a couple of minutes then they just, it just went off. And we always wondered what it was because it didn’t make any sound, we couldn’t hear anything. There is an airport kind of nearby but there weren’t any plane sounds, no engine sounds to it at all, all we saw were flickering lights and they kind of zipped out of the sky.

Idyllopus Press: So it didn’t disappear, it just zipped out of the sky.

Brother Arvin: I was eleven or twelve years old. I believe it was sixth grade.

Brother Arvin: It was about 7:45 a.m. Beautiful spring morning. Clear skies. A family down the street was going to give me a ride to school. Sometimes I walked, but for whatever reason, I didn’t that day….

Idyllopus Press: Was this in Texas?

Brother Arvin: Yes. Mesquite, Texas. A suburb of Dallas.

Idyllopus Press: OK.

Brother Arvin: My neighbors were one of those chaotic families. Three kids and a loud, obnoxious mother. I went into their house and waited for them to finish getting ready for school. Probably five minutes or so…

“I looked…in the direction of the school, and there in the sky was this large spherical metallic object.”

Brother Arvin: Then we all exited the house and began piling into the car. So there were at least four kids, a couple younger than me; one my own age. And as we were about to get into the car, for some reason, I looked up. The street ran east / west. I looked to the east, which was in the direction of the school, and there in the sky was this large spherical metallic object.

Brother Arvin: At first, I thought it was the moon.

Brother Arvin: I pointed at it and said (to anyone who would listen) “What is that?”

Brother Arvin: And I remember the kids’ mother looking over her shoulder – remember, we’re loading up into the car – and very quickly returning attention to the task at hand, which was getting us all to school. It was as though it didn’t really register with her.

Idyllopus Press: Interesting.

Brother Arvin: None of the kids were the least bit interested.

Brother Arvin: And I was still thinking, “Can that be the moon?” I knew about UFO’s, but it didn’t really occur to me that it was a UFO.

“Yes, definitely!”

The interview concerns a pair of sightings in Detroit, Michigan in the mid 1990s.

“It was very low and it had lights that were spinning around the perimeter of it.”

IDYLLOPUS PRESS: OK, the first question is always “Have you ever seen a UFO?”

DAMIEN: Yes, definitely.

IDYLLOPUS PRESS: You have! OK! Tell me about it.

Look! Look! I’ve got a UFO sighting!

DAMIEN: I was probably about 12, 13, 14, somewhere in there, and I literally saw a flying saucer.

IDYLLOPUS PRESS: It was a saucer.

H.O.P.: Ooooo!

DAMIEN: It was very low and it had lights that were spinning around the perimeter of it. And it sat above a house across the street and I got a good five second glimpse at it before it just disappeared.

IDYLLOPUS PRESS: It just disappeared or it took off?

DAMIEN: It took off. It was a flash of light and it was gone.

IDYLLOPUS PRESS: A flash of light and it was gone. In the flash of light did it disappear or did it go in any particular direction?

DAMIEN: It went in a direction. It went up and away and then it was gone.